Toyota releases luxury bicycle

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. has released a luxury bicycle priced at 1 million yen ($10,083) under its Lexus brand and will limit sales to 100 units worldwide.

The main components of the road bike are made of the same material as that used for the body of the Lexus LFA, Toyota's top-end sports car model.

The marketing of the bike comes as other Japanese carmakers and German automakers are putting their own luxury bicycles on the Japanese market. They hope to improve their brand image by marketing luxury bicycles built with technology and materials developed for their cars.

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The transmission and wheels of Toyota's bicycle are made by Shimano Inc., a Japanese manufacturer of high-quality bicycle parts.

A Toyota official said the bicycles can be used for racing.

BMW is selling road bikes priced at about 400,000 yen, and Porsche is marketing models priced at between about 450,000 yen and 810,000 yen.

Mercedes-Benz sells bicycles priced at about 460,000 yen.

A Mercedes-Benz official said the German carmaker hopes to increase opportunities to show consumers its technological excellence and fine product quality.